NEW ENGLAND WINTER. 141 



charitable and devout. They must be 

 pleasing to their Creator, I say to myself, 

 unless He is hard to please. Sometimes I 

 go so far as to think that possibly a man 

 may be religious without knowing even his 

 own religion. Let us hope so. Otherwise, 

 we of the laity are assuredly undone. 



And what is true of creeds and churches 

 is true likewise of countries and climates. 

 We grow wise by comparison of one thing 

 with another, not by direct and exclusive 

 contemplation of one thing by itself. Hu- 

 man knowledge is relative, not absolute, and 

 the inveterate stayer at home is but a poor 

 judge of his own birthplace. 



All this I have in lively remembrance as 

 I sit down to record some impressions of 

 our New England winter. With what pro- 

 priety do I discourse upon winter in Mas- 

 sachusetts, having never passed one any- 

 where else ? Had I spent a portion of my 

 life where roses bloom the year round, then, 

 to be sure, I might assume to say something 

 to the purpose about snow and ice. 



But if the " tillers of paper " wrote only 

 of such topics as they possessed full and. 

 accurate acquaintance with, how would the 



